Watch Every Sport, Paris Olympics Edition!

Table Tennis

Have I watched it before? Maybe a minute here or there.

What match/stage? Men's bronze and gold medal matches

Overall Impression?
The match that I watched had a lot of changes in leads and close wins, so that added some suspense and drama. But overall I didn't love watching this. The table is so little. Those rallies where both players get father and farther away from the table are visually interesting, but the matches I watched had pretty short rallies. I also didn't like the way that the camera filmed the serving moments, because I literally could not see how the players were serving the ball and found that very annoying!



Sports remaining: Artistic Gymnastics, Artistic Swimming, Breaking, Canoe/Kayak Sprint, Cycling Mountain Bike, Cycling Road, Cycling Track, Diving, Football, Handball, Hockey, Marathon Swimming, Modern Pentathlon, Rhythmic Gymnastic, Skateboarding, Sport Climbing, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, Wrestling

The best part of the surfing competition is the photos.

The first picture is amazing. The second picture . . . I do not understand.

Fortunately, there's an article for it!

And if you want to see the run the picture is from:

Cycling Track

Have I watched it before? Not really

What match/stage? I'm not totally sure: they were team events

Overall Impression?
It took me a little bit to understand the basic rules of what was happening, but I did quite enjoy the several parts I watched. The thing of having four riders on the track, but the time is based on the third person to cross the line is interesting. The idea of riding a bicycle with no brakes is certainly something!



Sports remaining: Artistic Gymnastics, Artistic Swimming, Breaking, Canoe/Kayak Sprint, Cycling Mountain Bike, Cycling Road, Diving, Football, Handball, Hockey, Marathon Swimming, Modern Pentathlon, Rhythmic Gymnastic, Skateboarding, Sport Climbing, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, Wrestling

Sport Climbing

Have I watched it before? Yes!

What match/stage? Men's speed qualifications and women's bouldering

Overall Impression?
I really enjoy watching climbing! I particularly like watching the bouldering and the way that the climbers have to try and solve the puzzle of how to get up the course. It's always neat seeing how different climbers approach it, and I really love that there can be more than one solution. Even within this professional slice of this sport, there are different physical and strategic capabilities, and so you aren't always just watching the same approach over and over.



Sports remaining: Artistic Gymnastics, Artistic Swimming, Breaking, Canoe/Kayak Sprint, Cycling Mountain Bike, Cycling Road, Diving, Football, Handball, Hockey, Marathon Swimming, Modern Pentathlon, Rhythmic Gymnastic, Skateboarding, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, Wrestling

Diving

Have I watched it before? Yes!

What match/stage? Women's platform finals

Overall Impression?
I like diving, but I have to admit that it's one of those sports that makes me a bit too nervous to fully enjoy. I think it's because of that oft-repeated footage of the diver hitting his head on the platform, but I find myself feeling anxious as I watch. That said, the athleticism on display was incredible, and the Chinese divers in particular were absolutely stunning.



Sports remaining: Artistic Gymnastics, Artistic Swimming, Breaking, Canoe/Kayak Sprint, Cycling Mountain Bike, Cycling Road, Football, Handball, Hockey, Marathon Swimming, Modern Pentathlon, Rhythmic Gymnastic, Skateboarding, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, Wrestling

Handball

Have I watched it before? Only a bit

What match/stage? Men's quarterfinal, France vs. Germany

Overall Impression?
I wasn't really looking forward to watching handball, probably because I was so underwhelmed with water polo and the layout is really similar. But I quite enjoyed this game. I'm sure it helps that the game was very close, trading leads, and lots of suspense and last minute twists pushing things into overtime. Not enough to make me into a handball fan, but it kept me invested until the end of the match.



Sports remaining: Artistic Gymnastics, Artistic Swimming, Breaking, Canoe/Kayak Sprint, Cycling Mountain Bike, Cycling Road, Football, Hockey, Marathon Swimming, Modern Pentathlon, Rhythmic Gymnastic, Skateboarding, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, Wrestling

[X] Skateboarding
[X] Sailing
[X] Athletics - Pole Vault
Athletics - Discus
Athletics - Javelin
Athletics - Triple jump
[X] Tennis
[X] Cycling Track
[X] Canoe/Kayak Sprint

A lot of fun for me this Olympics (and a lot of events I've never watched before, such as skateboarding.) So much happening every single day for Australia, already passing our all-time record for gold medals at an Olympic Games with 18. Men's doubles tennis a couple of nights ago, sailing (which we usually do well in), Nina Kennedy winning the women's pole vault - so great to see her so excited. The skateboarding champ was the same guy who won in Tokyo - all I do when I watch that is pray the guy doesn't fall over! Apart from that I'm clueless as to how well he's doing, apart from what the commentator is saying - but they always hype up our guys, so I can't be sure. When I switched to the aftermath of the women's basketball I saw our players crying and I thought they'd lost - but they'd actually won and were through to the semis. Not so great for our men's water polo team, who lost to the U.S.A. in the quarter-finals in a penalty shoot-out. But, third on the medal tally is great! The U.S. and China seem untouchable.

__________________

I am absolutely loving it. And the SPORTSMANSHIP!!! Today I was watching a replay of the women's big road race. At one point, all these women were touching this one rider on the back. I was like "Okay, is this, like, how they tell another rider they need to pass them or what?". But it seemed like they were just sitting there a while. Turned out they were holding her up so that she wouldn't fall over. A moment later, a rider gave a rider from a different country her water bottle. Just so many nice little moments. During the women's hammer throw, the woman from Poland who has been in the Olympics for years and years, hugging the next generation. I know there will always be a few egos, a few heated words, but the overall vibe is so positive.

It's really fun to get to root for your country. One nice thing about the USA winning so many medals is that it lets me relax a bit and root for everyone. Like, "my team" will be fine and have plenty of medals, I can be really happy for this taekwondo fighter from Croatia.

That review inspired me to go to my local station and grab a stream of the speed climbing - I thought to myself, "Hey, that's actually something I used to do!" I can't imagine doing it now, it's been a while - and when I saw the first competitors climb all that way in mere seconds it knocked my socks all the way off. They shoot up there with what looks like impossible speed. I'd literally take about 10-15 minutes to climb what takes them 6 seconds! I've never seen anything like that.

I'm noticing that too - it's really nice and exciting to see it. It's supposed to be a big part of what the Olympics are all about, but this is the first time I've encountered so many "aww" moments that they're not one or two isolated incidents but a general vibe the whole games seems to have in Paris.

Exactly. I'm not watching some "nice moments" highlight reels. I'm just seeing sweet little moments in basically every event I watch. It's really nice!

I have not attempted to watch every sport but I have seen some sports I haven't seen before - I never knew climbing was an Olympic sport! It was unexpectedly gripping (no pun intended). 3v3 basketball was less thrilling. BMX looks kind of fun. Rugby 7s is like rugby but quicker, which is interesting - I don't know why they can't do something similar with football.


Favorite sports so far: swimming, diving, athletics (running), canoe slalom, gymnastics


Least favorite: boxing, equestrian

I've watched a bit of sport climbing before, and I find all of the variations on it (speed, bouldering) really interesting. The bouldering in particular, just the problem solving of it all.




100% agree.

Wrestling

Have I watched it before? Yes

What match/stage? Men's bronze and gold medal matches

Overall Impression?
So a kid from where I live was in the gold medal match, and that definitely added interest. I'm not the biggest fan of wrestling, it just doesn't really grip me. But I did enjoy watching the two matches.



Sports remaining: Artistic Gymnastics, Artistic Swimming, Breaking, Canoe/Kayak Sprint, Cycling Mountain Bike, Cycling Road, Football, Hockey, Marathon Swimming, Modern Pentathlon, Rhythmic Gymnastic, Skateboarding, Taekwondo, Weightlifting

Taekwondo

Have I watched it before? Yes

What match/stage? Women's, not sure what stage!

Overall Impression?
I did taekwondo as a child, so this was kind of fun. This is another fighting sport where I don't 100% get the nuances of the rules. It is one of those sports where it feels like there's a lot of circling/waiting for stuff to happen.



Sports remaining: Artistic Gymnastics, Artistic Swimming, Breaking, Canoe/Kayak Sprint, Cycling Mountain Bike, Cycling Road, Football, Hockey, Marathon Swimming, Modern Pentathlon, Rhythmic Gymnastic, Skateboarding

Skateboarding

Have I watched it before? Yes

What match/stage? Men's final

Overall Impression?
Skateboarding doesn't do a TON for me as a viewer, but I don't dislike it. The athletes all seemed to be having a good time, and it's one of those sports where it's pretty fun to see the age and experience range of the people competing.



Sports remaining: Artistic Gymnastics, Artistic Swimming, Breaking, Canoe/Kayak Sprint, Cycling Mountain Bike, Cycling Road, Football, Hockey, Marathon Swimming, Modern Pentathlon, Rhythmic Gymnastic

Marathon Swimming

Have I watched it before? No

What match/stage? Women's final

Overall Impression?
My gosh did this make me tired just watching! I don't find marathon running or swimming to be the most compelling viewing. Especially swimming where you don't see much of their bodies. I did quite enjoy the last 10 minutes or so, and it was surprisingly close considering they were swimming for over two hours!



Sports remaining: Artistic Gymnastics, Artistic Swimming, Breaking, Canoe/Kayak Sprint, Cycling Mountain Bike, Cycling Road, Football, Hockey, Modern Pentathlon, Rhythmic Gymnastic

Hockey

Have I watched it before? No

What match/stage? Men's semi-final(?)

Overall Impression?
Okay, I don't know what it is about field hockey, but I just find it really boring! It was hard to pay attention to the game for more than a few minutes. Sorry field hockey fans!



Sports remaining: Artistic Gymnastics, Artistic Swimming, Breaking, Canoe/Kayak Sprint, Cycling Mountain Bike, Cycling Road, Football, Modern Pentathlon, Rhythmic Gymnastic

Artistic Swimming

Have I watched it before? Yes

What match/stage? Women's Free Routines

Overall Impression?
These swimming routines are so impressive on so many levels. To have that many people exactly on rhythm, in and out of the water. To have people holding their breath for so long while doing physically strenuous things. Those incredible shots half in the water where you can see them just ramrod straight up and down in the water. This isn't a sport I seek out, it's not one I'd ever want to do, but boy is it impressive!



Sports remaining: Artistic Gymnastics, Breaking, Canoe/Kayak Sprint, Cycling Mountain Bike, Cycling Road, Football, Modern Pentathlon, Rhythmic Gymnastic